new local entertainment

[LVSteve]

The trouble with the traffic light cameras is that it was too easy for the municipality or the contractor to squeeze more money by fiddling with the light timing.

As for stupid stuff, we had LVMPD handing out tickets in a school zone where all the school zone signs had been razed by a contractor working on a new development. People not familiar with Vegas should know that the school zones can be a street or more away from the actual school buildings. Not sure how that one played out.

 

[oldbrownhat]

The last time time I was caught in a speed trap (Dumont ?) the young woman in the passenger seat so charmed and rattled the young deputy he forgot to write me a ticket. I was teasing her about it further down the road…Whut?? :-D

Did you end up marrying her?

We get some "entertainment" along my road, too. Last couple of evenings this ******* has taken the nearly 90º corner at my driveway with his foot on the floorboards. If there had been anyone coming down the road they would have been toast. The first time (pics below) he nearly - but unfortunately didn't - end up in the ditch. My 5mp camera is pretty good but not good enough to pick up a lic. plate #.

 

[9mmPatriot]

Montana woman uses hair dryer to stop speeders on her road - CNN Video

 

[arjay]

Did you end up marying her?

We get some "entertainment" along my road, too. Last couple of evenings this ******* has taken the nearly 90º corner at my driveway with his foot on the floorboards. If there had been anyone coming down the road they would have been toast. The first time (pics below) he nearly - but infortunately didn't - end up in the ditch. My 5mp camera is pretty good but not good enough to pic up a lic. plate #.

Yikes! [emoji16]

 

[oldbrownhat]

Yikes! [emoji16]

The noise of him skidding around the corner (160' away) scared the c**p out of me and sent the cat scurrying downstairs. He did it again last night, although minus the near wipeout. I'm tempted to "accidentally" spill some sand at the bend. (But of course, that would also be caught on my camera.)

 

[arjay]

He's going to take someone with him when he blows it

 

[jdh]

Once upon a time long ago in a galaxy far away, there was a subdivision on the edge of town with one way in or out. The HOA had a meeting with our chief complaining about about the speeders on "their" road. The chief ordered intense patrol on the road with zero tolerance. The first five citations issued went to officers of the HOA or their spouses. One was for 40 over which went to the wife of the HOA president. After two hours a call came over the radio to cease patrols on the road.

 

[doublesharp]

Moore Haven Fl is one of the worst. Hwy 27 runs right through town and it is 4 lane 65 mph until you get near the bridge crossing the Caloosahatchee River. Bridge approach drops to 55 then 45 and then 35 at the crest.

Sheriff sits on the downhill side and will write you for 44 mph. Locals know but out of towners keep Fl green.

 

[Rustyt1953]

If'n yer bored....

Huge List of Speedtraps - The National Speedtrap Exchange

 

[wood714]

Kevin, remember Elmwood Place? Around 2012 they cut a deal with a California company to manufacture and install cameras. Snapshots were taken of license plates and $105 tickets were issued via mail with the California company taking a cut of each one paid. They raked in millions.

A lot of bogus infractions were issued and folks didn't have much chance in arguing their case.

After several investigations, in 2013 a Judge ordered all cameras removed.

In 2014 the same Judge ordered Elmwood Place to refund $1.8 million to those who paid their fines (including all court costs) Elmwood Place had already spent the money (most of it foolishly).

Most folks in neighboring Winton Place, St Bernard, Carthage, Bond Hill and Norwood still drive around Elmwood Place.

We moved out of Elmwood not long after I finished school. When I was growing up there they had the most corrupt police department you could imagine.
Closest I got was when I bought my first house that was located in Hartwell.

In the late 90's I'd sometimes ride my bike down there around my old place and the places I hung out. It was nothing at all like when I lived there. Went way down hill.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

There is a small town on US 78, named Fruithurst, close to the Alabama Georgia line that use to do the speed trap thing really well. It was known far and wide as a place to get a ticket. Finally the state stepped in and stopped it, then the interstate by passed them, and it's probably just a crossroad now.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[soFlaNative]

Don't know why one would raise one's BP by monitoring neighborhood traffic but since this thread has morphed into one about speed traps I think of a small town that was granted a huge piece of pork for a massive span over the Caloosahatchie that requires a downshift or riding the brake on the northbound descent.
Local law will tuck into an almost unseen river access road and could write cites all day long as motorists stream into town well above the posted 35 mph.

 

[steelslaver]

If'n yer bored....

Huge List of Speedtraps - The National Speedtrap Exchange

That is hilarious.

I checked out Montana. Jordan only has a Sheriff and a deputy. If you go 40mph though the restaurant parking lot you might get a ticket. The deputy once stopped me for 84 in a 70 on 2 lane road and gave me a warning.

I drive around Great Falls all the time and almost never see a cop with someone pulled over.

Roundup has more deputies than Jordan. I go through there quite a bit and have never seen anyone pulled over or a cop in hiding. Their sheriff dept is right on the main drag, they have no police dept.

In fact I have never noticed or heard of any of the listed towns being traps. The worst trap in the state is Ashland on highway 212 between Billings MT and Rapid city ND and it is not on the list.

 

[Baxter6551]

Arjay - you should be able to delete the camera clip of you spreading the sand, no ?
It is a rare sight in CT these days to see someone pulled over on a traffic stop. Being retired LEO I can't blame them.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Most people want more law enforcement. Until it gets enforced on them . . .

Once upon a time long ago in a galaxy far away, there was a subdivision on the edge of town with one way in or out. The HOA had a meeting with our chief complaining about about the speeders on "their" road. The chief ordered intense patrol on the road with zero tolerance. The first five citations issued went to officers of the HOA or their spouses. One was for 40 over which went to the wife of the HOA president. After two hours a call came over the radio to cease patrols on the road.

 

[glenwolde]

Years ago speed traps became such a problem in Texas it drew the attention of the State. They started sending State Troopers in plain clothes and personal vehicles through them to document the abuses.

Then they passed a state law that capped the revenue from tickets that a municipality was allowed to retain. Anything over the cap had to be sent to the state. That stopped a lot of blatant abuse on interstate highways but speed traps still abound in small towns. The law is poorly enforced against municipalities. It requires an audit to enforce.

The most famous of these towns was the city of Splendora where they had a really huge police force for what was at the time a tiny little town. The force was entirely supported from ticket revenue on Hwy 59. The joke was the police force had more officers than the population of the town. Not quite true but it was surely way disproportionate to the need of the town.

 

[johngalt]

Arjay - you should be able to delete the camera clip of you spreading the sand, no ?
It is a rare sight in CT these days to see someone pulled over on a traffic stop. Being retired LEO I can't blame them.

If I lived on the outside of a bend, I would prefer the road to not be slick...

 

[oldbrownhat]

Arjay - you should be able to delete the camera clip of you spreading the sand, no ?...

That was actually me. But no, you really can't delete bits of video [corrected from "audio"] from a DVR without reformatting the entire drive. All cameras are recording a continuous stream to the HD. Rather different than deleting a file from your PC- and even then, it isn't really deleted- just the directory information that tells the O/S that it is there, and allows those sectors to have new data written there. The actual information is still on the drive until it is over-written, or you run a program like CC Cleaner which (laboriously) over-writes all the unused space.

If I lived on the outside of a bend, I would prefer the road to not be slick...

Agreed. I was just thinking "temporary unkind thoughts" for this one scalliwag ;

 

[Doug M.]

I bet a good forensic video person could enhance that shot of the plate.

I would also invest in some very large decorative rocks on the edge of the front yard. I recall going to a wreck or two at a similar curve where drivers got stupid. Stupid resulted directly in karmic outcomes. The sudden change in direction and speed was ... educational ... and likely totaled every car involved.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I bet a good forensic video person could enhance that shot of the plate.

I would also invest in some very large decorative rocks on the edge of the front yard. I recall going to a wreck or two at a similar curve where drivers got stupid. Stupid resulted directly in karmic outcomes. The sudden change in direction and speed was ... educational ... and likely totaled every car involved.

I'm not sure the plate# could be enhanced. I've looked at the original and at 2x and it's pretty blurry. I've been having some discussions with the tech folks I get my gear from and there is a theory that the camera is "stuttering", although they haven't defined that yet. It's a 5mp camera running at 20 fps. Single frames do seem a bit blurred. From a bit of reading I've been doing, the problem with blurred images is not so much the frame rate but the shutter speed, and although this camera has a very wide range (something like 1/30 sec. to 1/25,000) there is no way in the interface to manually adjust it. In daylight a much faster frame rate would be OK, but at night it could be problematical as you need a slow shutter speed to gather enough light. The really high-end CCTV cameras have large sensors, which helps with light gathering. Anyway, I might replace it if I can, once the problem can be identified. I don't actually need forensic quality but the police have collected video data from this camera a couple of times when there have been "events of interest" on the road.

As to putting big rocks along the roadway, that's a no-no. First of all it's on municipal property, not mine, but a nighbour up the road (where there is an S-bend) did this a few years ago- just inside his property line - and was told to remove them "as someone could get hurt" or some such nonsense.